


Secrets

by Takada_Saiko



Series: Fallen [2]
Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series, early meetings, little Waverly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-19 00:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11886393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takada_Saiko/pseuds/Takada_Saiko
Summary: Bobo finds little Waverly traipsing through the snow.





	Secrets

**Secrets**

 

She was traipsing across the soft snow with the determination worthy of her family namesake. More worthy than some that had had better claims to it, he'd wager as he watched the little girl from his perch back out of her line of sight.

While spring was creeping up on the Ghost River Triangle it was hardly warm, and she looked like she had taken off in a rage, barely tugging on a jacket twice her size. Now she was calf deep in snow that had been packed down enough that her slight weight wouldn't have mattered just days before, but the sun breaking through the clouds and the slightly warmer weather had loosened it.

He had no idea what she was doing out there all by herself. Ward was off doing whatever Ward Earp did at this hour, but the girl's mother should have been watching her. Instead she was alone, cheeks red and tear-streaked over some wrongdoing, and she was nearing the edge of the Homestead.

That wouldn't do. There were plenty of Revenants that would see the little Earp baby as a chance to snuff her father out. Of the handful of Heirs that had come and gone since Wyatt died, Ward was nothing special, but the child would be collateral damage. He wouldn't let Waverly become collateral damage. Not his little angel.

Her toe snagged something beneath the powder and she fell headlong into the snow, a startled sound escaping her and she lay there for a moment, unmoving, and he flicked his cigarette into the wet snow, rising part way from his crouched position. He waited, watching, unsure exactly what he planned to do about it. The ammolite that kept the other Revenants off the Earp land kept him off just as well. If he so much as tried to go to her it would blow him away like a dried leaf in the wind.

Finally the little girl pulled herself up. Her face and front end were covered with snow and she looked at her empty hands. Big, wet tears gathered and she started to dig, the sobs choking her and she wasn't finding what she was looking for.

And then he saw it, just on his side of the fence, a bent and broken little tin toy. It looked as if someone had taken a boot to it, crunching it hard against equally hard ground to the point that he wasn't even sure what it had been before. He reached out, the little figure flying to his palm when called, and he moved carefully to place it on the edge of the fence, using her distraction with the dig so that she wouldn't even notice.

But she did notice. He'd been silent, his boots not making a sound in the soft snow, and he froze where he was as two large, bloodshot blue eyes looked up at him. He'd watched her for four years now. He'd seen her grow and laugh and play. He'd seen her hug on the middle sister and the eldest tease her relentlessly as, if memory served, siblings always did. He'd seen her, but she hadn't seen him. Not until right then, and if he didn't say something, he thought she might start crying out of fear this time.

"Hi." He crouched down in the snow, his movements very slow and as unimposing as he could make them. Long fingers uncurled from around her toy and he set it on the fence edge. "Is this what you're looking for?"

Waverly Earp blinked hard, tears still escaping one at a time, and she nodded.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," he promised.

"Daddy said not to go on the other side of the fence."

Well, at least Ward had done that much. "That's smart," he told her, "and you're pretty smart, aren't you?"

She nodded, almost as if she wasn't sure that was the answer that he wanted, even if it was correct.

He did his best to let his expression soften - something so strange after so many years of hardening it, making the mask impenetrable to any that might be looking - and he smiled for her. "Here." He pushed the crumbled figurine towards her. "You can get it from that side."

Waverly moved forward, never breaking eye contact with him, and he remained completely still as she snagged it, holding it to her chest protectively.

"What happened?"

She frowned and looked at it again. "Willa's mean. She stomped it."

"Ah," he said softly.

"It was a cat," Waverly told him, taking a step back towards the fence again, this time a little braver than before. "See? It had ears and a nose here." She held it out for him to inspect and he tilted his head. All of a sudden she was at the fence, her little fingers wrapped around the wood and he found himself staring straight into those bright blue eyes. So innocent. So naive. He wondered how long she could stay that way. "Can you fix it?"

He blinked. "Why would I be able to fix it?" he asked softly, and he saw that clever little mind working for an answer that she couldn't have possibly known.

"Dunno," she said with a shrug.

He held out his hand and she put it in his palm without hesitation. "This can be our secret," he told her.

"Really? I get to know a secret?"

"Mm, but just you."

"Not even Willa and Wynonna?"

"Nope."

"Not Daddy?"

"Nope."

She thought about it for a long moment and finally nodded, her blonde hair falling in her face. "Okay."

He shifted, steadying himself in the squatted position he was still in, and placed his other hand over the toy. He felt the metal shifting, moving where he told it to, until it formed up what she'd described as the toy before her big sister had mutilated it.

Waverly's eyes grew wide as he uncovered it and her smile could have lit the entire world. "It's pretty again!"

He set it on the fence for her and she snagged it, inspecting it. "Why'd your sister break it?" he asked, glancing up towards the house. The last thing he wanted was Ward traipsing out looking for his youngest and finding him there. Most days the Earp Heir knew it was in his best interest to keep the Revenants' leader above ground, but there were days with a lot of whisky and a quick temper. Thankfully his aim was nowhere near what his great granddaddy's had been, even with Peacemaker's help.

"She's mad," Waverly told him, still looking it over. "She's mad 'cause Mama left. She said it's my fault."

Interesting. He hadn't heard that Ward's wife had finally had enough. He wasn't surprised. Not really, but he was surprised she hadn't taken the girls with her as she fled. It wouldn't have been impossible, even if something or the other would have eventually brought Willa back by the time she came of age.

Her little voice was so sad and he frowned just a little. He shouldn't care. She was a child and children cried one second and were giggling the next. It would pass. She would adapt. In the grand scheme of everything that was happening around them, this was not something he needed to concern himself with, but somehow he was. Very concerned, and he leaned against the sturdy wood of the fence, feeling the buzz of the ammolite that threatened to send him flying.

She sniffed. "Mama gave it to me. Willa misses her, so I told her she could play with the it. She stomped it and told me it was my fault."

"It's not your fault, Angel." The words escaped him before he gave them permission.

She looked up and wiped at her tears with the back of her sleeve. She sniffed one more time and stuck her hand through the opening. "I'm Waverly. Waverly Earp," she told him matter of factly, a funny sense of pride for someone so young echoing in the way she said her family name. "What's your name?"

He stared at her outstretched hand for a moment, his breath showing as he loosed it. He shouldn't be here. Too much was at stake, and if he took a wrong step he'd be screaming amongst the flames until Ward died and Willa turned twenty-seven. There was too much to do and he couldn't miss his opportunities as they arose. It was one thing to watch from a distance, but to be there with her? To shake her tiny little hand and tell her his name? It was risky. She was a child. She would talk.

"You don't wanna be friends?" Waverly asked, sounding hurt by the notion.

"'Course I do, Angel. Who wouldn't wanna be your friend?" She beamed at him and he shook that small hand.

"Our secret," she promised him, almost as if reading his discomfort. It was impossible. She was a clever little girl, but she was still a little girl. Surely that was impossible.

"Our secret," he agreed and stood. "Go get warm."

"Will you come back?"

"Yeah."

"Promise?"

A tiny smirk tilted his lips. "Promise," he assured her.

She grinned at him and turned, but before she took too many steps out of earshot he spoke again. "Bobo."

"That's your name?"

"That's my name."

"That's a funny name," she giggled and darted off, clutching her newly-restored tin kitty in her hand.

Bobo watched her go, an old promise to never hurt his angel playing through his mind like a memory of a dream. It had felt like a dream for so long, and hell had nearly burned the memory right out of him, but then he'd heard the Earp baby's name - _Waverly_ \- and he'd known. He'd remembered, and he'd thought that maybe, just maybe, he might still be able to do _something_ right.

* * *

 

Notes: Baby Waves is a lot of fun to write. I just kind of want to scoop her up and protect her from Willa.


End file.
